How AI Can Help Small and Medium Business Owners

How AI Can Help Small and Medium Business Owners

More and more people fear that because of AI, they’ll become redundant at work. Even managers worry.

This might actually please business owners who could purchase an AI agent that successfully manages their business.

The business would work automatically, money would flow into the bank, and the business owner would travel the world…

Maybe someday it will happen.

In 2025, Anthropic conducted an experiment: it gave Claude (Sonnet 3.7) to manage a vending machine at its San Francisco offices.

The developers learned a lot from the experiment, but if Claudius (the name given to the “machine manager”) had been flesh and blood, he would have been fired immediately.

For those interested, here’s the link: https://www.calcalist.co.il/calcalistech/article/rjfbwokrlg#google_vignette

So AI can’t (yet) manage your business, but it can help you.

Provided you’re well aware of its limitations:

It can provide inaccurate and even completely wrong answers (hallucinations). Even if you’re precise and detailed in the prompt!
Sometimes it’s difficult to verify answer reliability, increasing error risk
It struggles with understanding broad or complex contexts
It learns from historical data. If the data is biased, the results will be biased too

Think I’m exaggerating? Ask the AI chatbots, especially those providing article links.

My Work Process with AI Tools:

Define what I’m looking for
Write a prompt — as clear, precise, and detailed as possible — including how I want the answer presented
If the answer seems irrelevant, try to be more precise
If after additional precision the answer is still irrelevant, give up. Sometimes try another AI tool
If the answer is relevant but not precise or detailed enough, continue asking for details
If after refinements, the answer seems good enough, I stop
Next, I check factual data (if any) and filter accordingly
Finally, I save the answer in a file to serve as basis for my implementation (not copy-paste!)

Simple Example:

I asked ChatGPT for quotes from famous people suitable for inclusion on this website.

I received 6 quotes. After checking, only 3 (50%) were authentic.

But if I had just searched for quotes on Google, it would have taken much longer.

So actually, AI saved me time.

So, practically, how can AI help you?

Generally, a business owner can use AI in 3 main ways:

Build AI agents that perform automation in the business
Upload business data to chatbots and request analysis (Data Analysis)
Ask chatbots and work with answers after checking them

Building AI agents and data analysis through AI are 2 things only an expert can do, and even then with great caution.

Let’s address only the third way — questions and answers to chatbots:

Technically:

Need to define what you want
Write a prompt as precisely and detailed as possible
Check if the answer is relevant and add/change the prompt as needed
After getting an answer that seems sufficiently detailed, comprehensive, and relevant — check it as much as possible

Good Topics:

In a generally familiar field
As specific as possible
Expected answers that can be checked — at least by sampling

Bad Topics:

Topics you don’t understand enough — especially if they’re controversial
General and complex topics
Topics where it’s unclear how to check answers

Examples:

Topic	Good / Not Good
Market trends for specific product type	Good, assuming experience in the field and ability to identify “hallucinations”
Suggestions for posts/emails	Good, provided you check results and compare to previous or parallel ones (A/B testing)
Which mobile devices to sell to people sensitive to radiation	Not good. Controversial topic requiring technical understanding
How to increase profitability in my business	Not good. General, complex topic that varies for each business owner. The answer will be general and it won’t be clear what to do with it

Who’s asking matters greatly!

People love to “play” with chatbots.

Full of wonder at the phenomenon that a robot understands them, answers relevantly (at least apparently…), and doesn’t lose patience even when they nag.

If your business is healthy, stable, and profitable, you should definitely use this tool. This tool will become every business owner’s right hand — like Word and Excel today.

If your business is in real crisis, it’s definitely not advisable. By the time you find and implement the right answers, the business might collapse. Better to turn to an expert in the specific field where you’re sure the weak link lies, and don’t expect AI to get you out of trouble.

If it’s still unclear, you’re undecided, or worried about this innovation that’s landed on us, feel free to contact me.